


Options

by Olorisstra



Series: The nerve to never take 'no' for an answer [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Force but the TPM plot holes are deeper and more dangerous than the Maw, GFY, Gen, Genderbending, Jedi Apprentice at play in the background, Legends-based, Qui-Gon is a very emotionally damaged person, Qui-Gon is also a dick, TPM is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 15:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11489679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olorisstra/pseuds/Olorisstra
Summary: Were they truly all so set in their discussion that they were discounting how it must make a just barely freed boy feel, to be talked about in such terms and with such a complete disregard of his own agency?





	Options

**Author's Note:**

> RL ate my time and energy, to the point where I am struggling to do anything that is not working / looking for work since I'll be out of work in two weeks.
> 
> I now have a working, very beloved new second-hand phone, which is why my tumblr is alive again and why I managed to write something out on my way to work (I have one to two hours of commute going and coming back, depending on the changes in the train situation that are usually spent jotting down things by hand that later I don't have the energy to type up).
> 
> This is that something.
> 
> Dunno when more stuff will be incoming or when I will update my other fics (they *will* be updated, I am not abandoning anything, just so everyone knows) but I will try to catch up to the comments on them (I am not making promises however).
> 
> This is all part of a (Legend-based, Jedi Apprentice-influenced) bigger universe of ideas, meta and stories where Obi-Wan was born a female and that both didn't change and did change parts of how Obi-Wan life was lived by Obi-Wan, how others reacted to Obi-Wan and how certain events went.
> 
> Part of how Obi-Wan's life changed and part of how Obi-Wan's life did *not* change both led to her seeing the world differently from how canon male Obi-Wan did and they are at play, unspoken and unaddressed in the background of this fic. If anyone is interested in them, leave a comment or fire me an ask on tumblr at jhaernyl dot tumblr dot com and I will at some point get around to answering you (or maybe writing something new, who ever knows?)
> 
> It might come to relate to a project called Cultural Misunderstandings And Other Relationship Mishaps (CMAORM for short) which is set during the Clone Wars or it might not. I will be certainly using elements, ideas and maybe even references from this in CMAORM, if CMAORM will ever see the light of the day, but unless I ever specifically acknowledge a reference to this in CMAORM don't consider them tied together.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

Obi-Wan stood and watched as her Master, former Master? Master because ordered to keep on being such?, and the Council discussed young Anakin Skywalker and his potential training and whether it was going or not to happen.

 

There was something, to the scene, that left her queasy in the stomach. It was, she was aware, the fact that it reminded her of the haggling the kind of beings that frequented slave markets did over the goods they had brought, Qui-Gon, and the goods they weren't convinced they ought to buy, the Council.

 

It was a disturbing image, but a fitting one nonetheless, down to the de-humanization of Anakin, to whom everyone was referring to as 'the boy', rather than by name or by anything even remotely resembling a freed being moniker. Were they truly all so set in their discussion that they were discounting how it must make a just barely freed boy feel, to be talked about in such terms and with such a complete disregard of his own agency?

 

It seemed as if they _were_.

 

Obi-Wan hesitated, but only for the moment it took for her to feel the Force bolster her and encourage her on, filling her when she opened herself up to it, feeling it echo in her voice, not when she cleared it but when she spoke, just loud enough to be heard above the bickering.

 

“Honored Masters.” She called and in the ensuing, more astonished than cross, silence she stepped forward, not enough to draw on level with Qui-Gon but enough to show that she was putting herself forward for a potential spot in the discussion.

 

“I am aware that I am nothing but an apprentice, one that by her own Master's admission has still much to learn, --” She started, borrowing Qui-Gon's earlier words in a bid to present herself not only as she was but also as different from her own Master and the casual disregard he, as always, was showing the Council.

 

It was a placating move and a disarming gambit, giving them the opening they needed to dismiss her and her opinions if so they wished in the hope they would accept the weapon and choose to listen to her, rather than to wield it, long enough to allow her to slide her attack in. More of a Soresu verbal attack, than the Ataru-like aggressive attacking her Master favored, but Obi-Wan had always been served well by such gambits.

 

“-- but I was wondering if, perhaps, Anakin Skywalker couldn't be put in one of the Jedi Corps, if he so wishes.” She continued, smoothly linking the words to her previous ones like one continuous phrase when the Council did not shut her down.

 

She knew, even before she spoke the words, that there would be no way Qui-Gon would ever approve of them. He was clearly feeling some sort of call from the Force, one that made him think that his place, regardless of Obi-Wan's unpreparedness to her Trials, was to be as Anakin Skywalker's Master and he, much like everyone else Obi-Wan had ever known to be Temple-raised, saw the Corps in the same light of inferiority that Obi-Wan had once looked at them in, before her experiences enlightened her to their relevance and worthiness. The Chosen One of the Prophecy, a Corps member? Unthinkable!

 

Yet, she was also sure that the Council was going to appreciate her proposal just as much as Qui-Gon wasn't going to. Anakin Skywalker, whether anyone liked it or not, was a beacon in the Force, one whose midichlorian count was far too high to be ignored. To put him in the Corps would be to deny him the same training that Padawans and Knights received, but it would also ensure that he would still be trained to know and use his abilities in Light ways, keeping him close enough to maintain a discreet surveillance without putting him in the limelight.

 

It was to Anakin that she turned, smoothly sliding down on one knee to put herself at his level, in the ringing silence that followed her proposal, looking him in the eyes as she hastened to reassure him, rather than leaving him as excluded as the rest of the discussion must have made him feel.

 

“Initiates who become too old to be Knights are not just sent off and forgot about.” She explained, since she doubted anyone had thought to reassure the boy that he wasn't going to be abandoned to his own means, on what for him was an unknown planet, separated by most of the galaxy from his only blood relation and alone for the first time in his life. “The Jedi Order is made up of both Knights and Corps. The Corps are made of the Medical Corps, Agricultural Corps, Exploration Corps, Educational Corps, Administrative and Logistics Corps and the Technical Corps.”

 

She smiled, at the flicker of interest that came to life in his eyes at the last one. She had saved it for last on purpose, knowing it would get Anakin's attention. She had heard more than enough, on their trip back, about his pod and C3PO, the droid he had been building for his mother, to know that the boy was bound to have an interest in anything technical related.

 

“Members of the Corps are still trained to use their talents in the Force, but their training is a different one from that of a Knight. They learn to wield the weapons of their Corp, rather than lightsabers, and they learn how to use the Force in very specific ways.” She went on, under the watchful eye of the Council and while her Master grasped for enough composure to recover from the shock she had dealt him. “For example, the mechanics in the Technical Corps learn how to use the Force to feel the inner workings of ships and droids, until they swear they can feel the machines talk to them, guiding them to what can be upgraded and helping them understand where any mechanical faults lie.”

 

Her smile deepened, in the light curl of her lips, at his awed expression and soft exclamation of “Wizard!”

 

She let it fade when she turned back to the Council, standing just as smoothly as she had kneeled, resting a hand on Anakin's shoulder, to ground and reassure him further with her close presence, but still refraining from take the last step, the one that would put her parallel to her Master, rather than standing behind him.

 

“Anakin Skywalker used scraps and unwanted parts he scavenged while under Watto's ownership to build his own pod-racer and he was, before his freedom was secured and we brought him here, building a protocol droid for his mother. I did not get to see it myself, as Master Qui-Gon did, but I was informed that it was only lacking in his outer plating, as he was fully functional, moving as well as protocols droids ever do and both talking and translating already.” She explained, striving for serenity and trying to release the slow anticipation that she felt building with every second that went by without Qui-Gon protesting or interrupting her. “I am sure that he could walk any Technical Corps expert through the schematics if needed. Old for the Knights as he might be, the Corps do not have a cut off age at all.”

 

“That's quite enough, _Padawan_.”

 

Ah.

 

There it was.

 

Obi-Wan squeezed Anakin's shoulder once, reassuringly, and then let go of him, lowering her head and folding her hands within her sleeves, in mute acceptance of her Master's words. Silently, she stepped back, knowing herself dismissed until Qui-Gon would find time to heap scathing disapproval on her head for her daring and what he would undoubtedly think of as her own selfish desires.

 

“You _must_ all see that Anakin belongs to the Knights and no other branch of the Order!” Qui-Gon forged on, immediately, before anyone else could speak, bolstered by her obedience.

 

“Must we, you say?” Master Yoda wondered, eyes narrowing as he looked at his student's student as if he was wondering just how many whacks of his gimer stick Qui-Gon's shins and head where going to deserved.

 

“I think Padawan Kenobi's proposition has potential.” Master Ki-Adi-Mundi added, inclining his head to her in what felt like both acknowledgement and perhaps, though she probably was just imagining it, gratitude for her help in defusing the situation.

 

As Qui-Gon drew himself up to his impressive stature, ready to forge ahead in battle once more, even when betrayed by his own apprentice, Obi-Wan adjusted the way her weight was resting on the balls of her feet and settled herself in for another long Council session.

 

She knew she wasn't going to be called on to express an opinion again.

 

The matter was out of her hands once more.

 


End file.
